Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 September 1883 — The Viceroy and the Baby. [ARTICLE]

The Viceroy and the Baby.

A characteristic anecdote is related related of the late Lord Lawrence, when, as the new Viceroy, he was returning to the country in which his best years had been passed. He was in bad spirits, partly from sea-sickness, partly from lack of friends and congenial natures around him, partly from the feeling of the heavy responsibilities which he had assumed in comparatively weak health. A lady was returning to India with her infant child, which she utterly neglected, and the baby took its revenge upon the passengers generally by squalling day and night alike. They complained in no measured language to the authorities. “Steward, throw that baby overboard!” was a cry which came from many a sleepless berth. But the nuisance continued unabated. At last the new Viceroy, perhaps because he saw in the child, halfunconsciously, a slight resemblance to his lost Bertie, gave it a large share of his attention, and would take it for hours together on his knee, showing it his watch and anything that would amuse it. The child took to him, as he to it, and, to the great relief of the passengers, was always quiet in his presence. “Why do you take so much notice of that child?” asked one of them. “Why, to tell the truth,” said the Viceroy, “that child is the only being in the ship who I can feel sure does not want anything out of me, and so I take pleasure in its society.” How much of the kindliness and simplicity of a great nature is revealed by this simple story!